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Olga Wong

A meeting between the Urban Renewal Authority chairman  and hunger strikers in Wan Chai's 'Wedding Card Street' ended in chaos yesterday  as  demonstrators chased him and blocked his departure.
The meeting was arranged after a dozen protesters  opposing plans to redevelop the area  presented a petition to the authority's headquarters.
After exchanging  views with a hunger striker,  Barry Cheung Chun-yuen was surrounded by  yelling protesters and had to be escorted to his car by  police.
Some  protesters  climbed onto his car  and others stood in front of  it.  He was able to leave only after police ordered the protesters to calm down and issued a verbal warning.
Mr Cheung remained adamant the development of the Lee Tung Street area - known as Wedding Card Street because of the  shops it once housed - had to  proceed.
H15 Concern Group, which launched a protest  on Sunday,  said Mr Cheung would pay a high price  and hinted at a judicial review.
The action began after group member May Yip Mee-yung found that demolition of  tenement buildings had begun last week, three weeks before a meeting of the Town Planning Board  was due to consider a proposal from the group.
The proposal  calls for  retention of  30 tenement buildings, reducing the height of four proposed  high-rises by five  storeys and scrapping an underground car park.
Citing the high restoration cost, the authority decided to demolish most of the buildings and  build new  ones. It also promised an area for a social enterprise with the theme  'Wedding City'. Responding to shop owners' worries that rents in Wedding City would be too high,  an authority spokesman said  it was considering a short rent-exemption period  if  they moved back.
Wan Chai District Council chairwoman Ada Wong Ying-kay said it would be  regrettable if  the street was not  saved,  as the Blue House  and Wan Chai Market were to be.



Urban renewal chief chased by 'Wedding Card Street' protesters